Giant Starship transposons: Drivers of adaptation across fungi

The ability to generate high-quality fungal genomes brought with it new frontiers of scientific discovery and paved the way for answering outstanding biological mysteries. Recently, several independent observations of large mobile elements within fungal genomes were recognized as manifestations of the same phenomenon: a newly discovered superfamily of mobile elements called Starships. I will detail how individual stories of genomic exploration coalesced into the discovery of a previously hidden mechanism of fungal evolution, how the Starships fit into current concepts of fungal genome architecture, describe important aspects of Starship biology, and finally provide a perspective on where we see the Starships taking the field in the future.